Tuesday, January 31, 2012

overcoming perceived barriers by enfranchising faculty

Oh random thoughts of progress...

What is our growth of part-time faculty, adjuncts, lecturers, etc.? This is part of the trend and equation. What are the resistors to online teaching for full-time faculty?

Can we look at  a model of faculty (full-time or otherwise) at a distance?

What percentage of our faculty/instructors teaching in the iMBA and iSchool programs are on-campus? Do we have remote faculty in those programs?

General question for preparing faculty: Should we require faculty to teach the course at least once in a F2F format before allowing them (or preparing them) to teach the course online (in full or hybrid format)?

Barriers to allowing distance faculty:

1) Tradition
2) Perceived faculty role change.

Similar concerns/arguments surrounding remote workers.
  • "How do they attend faculty meetings?"
  • "They can't take full advantage of support resources on campus."

What can we do:
  • Develop alternate support options
  • Change attitudes about the "weight" or value of teaching online
  • Identify a champion
  • Assess the institutional culture (already done this at the macro level)
  • Environmental scan (this is the core of my proposal -- it's a micro-level environment scan).
  • Spec or create an infrastructure that would allow faculty to participate as a member of the faculty community (we do this for students)

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